Texas Tech University NSF-Partnership of Women in Engineering Research and Science Mentoring Program Big 12 Advance Conference Lawrence Kansas 2010 National Science Foundation ADVANCE-PAID Grant Texas Tech University NSF SBE

ORIGINAL PROGRAM One-on-one mentoring program for women faculty in Science and Engineering departments. –A chance to have a female mentor when one may not be available otherwise. –Chance to have a mentor outside of her department.

LIMITED INTEREST –Only had 5 mentor/mentee pairs (out of 32 female faculty). 1 mentee was an associate professor 1 was a research professor. 3 assistant professors. –Most pairs only met once or twice for the duration of one semester only. –One pair did not meet at all.

PROGRAM ADJUSTMENT We conducted a series of interviews about mentoring to see how we could adjust the program to elicit more interest. –Most felt they had enough opportunities for mentoring in previously established relationships. –Except for one women, no preference for female mentors. –Fear of being perceived as weak and not a team player.

BROWN BAG MENTORING Created a brown bag mentoring program. –Colleagues spoke about specific career issues, lead discussion, answered questions and gave advice where appropriate. –Was more focused and targeted. Topics included child care, tenure process, tips for grant proposal writing, being a dept. chair –Appealed to busy faculty who were juggling work and family. –Topics related to career rather than family were more popular.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE MENTORING PROGRAMS A supplemental mentoring program that gives women a chance to share information, wisdom and insights in a safe space. A chance to provide networking and additional career support that may not be available in other venues. Let participants determine how mentoring will be structured.